Keystone Advisers acted as buy-side adviser to largest locally-owned Estonian food industry company Maag Grupp AS in purchase of debt claims of Tere AS and related companies from DNB and Nordea banks. Keystone transaction team consisted of Tõnis Kons and Henri Kaar.
For more information, click here.
HeadHunter Group, online HR-solutions leader operating in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and other countries, divested 100% of the shares in CV Keskus OÜ, operator of leading job classifieds sites cvkeskus.ee in Estonia, cvmarket.lv in Latvia and cvmarket.lt in Lithuania to Ringier Axel Springer Media AG. HeadHunter will focus the resources on its core markets. Following the transaction, Ringier Axel Springer Media expanded to the Baltic classifieds market for the first time.
Keystone Advisers transaction team was led by Tõnis Kons and also included Stanislav Gutkevitsh and Martin Sillasoo.
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In June 2015 our client signed an agreement to sell 27.5% stake in Contimer OÜ.
| Seller | Buyer |
| Minority shareholder | Private individuals |
Contimer is among the top three customs bonded warehouse keepers and forwarders of general cargo and dry bulk in Estonia. The company was founded in 1995 and its turnover reached EUR 15.2 mn in 2013.
The transaction was completed on 18 June 2015. Transaction value is not disclosed. Keystone Advisers acted as the exclusive financial advisor to the Seller.
For additional information please contact:
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TÕNIS KONS+372 501 5640 |
| Seller | Buyer |
| Private individual |  |
Kyocera Group’s subsidiary in charge of manufacturing and sales of industrial cutting tools, Kyocera Unimerco A/S has entered into agreement to acquire 100% shares in UAB Garsdalo Medienos Technologija (hereinafter – “Garsdalo”), a Lithuania-based company specializing in production and distribution of tools and equipment for the woodworking industry. Through this acquisition, Kyocera Unimerco aims to strengthen its woodworking tool business currently centered in Northern Europe.
Founded in 1998 in Lithuania, Garsdalo specializes in production of polycrystalline diamond (PCD) tools, providing re-sharpening services and distributing tools and equipment for the woodworking industry. The 42 people company has a state of the art production plant in Vilnius and is exporting tools to more than 10 countries in Europe.
“I am glad that we have reached an agreement with our long-term partner – we have been working with Kyocera Unimerco since the foundation of the company in 1998. Being a part of the larger group now means further development of Garsdalo as a leading woodworking tool supplier in the region as well as new opportunities for our customers”, says Ole Garsdal, founder and CEO of Garsdalo.
According to Anders Hegaard, Group Vice President at Kyocera Unimerco, “We are happy to welcome Garsdalo into our group. This acquisition will allow us to create synergies by expanding sales channels in Central and Eastern Europe and strengthening our product line-up”.
This is Kyocera Unimerco’s first acquisition in Eastern Europe. The transaction was completed on 27 April 2015. Transaction value is not disclosed.
Keystone Advisers acted as the exclusive financial advisor to the Seller. Seller’s legal advisor was Glimstedt. Kyocera Unimerco was advised by KPMG, Plesner and LAWIN.
About Kyocera Unimerco group
Kyocera Unimerco A/S is an international manufacturer, distributor and service company. The company comprises a tooling division (Kyocera Unimerco Tooling) and a fastening division (Kyocera Unimerco Fastening). The group was founded in Denmark in 1964 under the name Unimerco. In 2011, all activities were acquired by Kyocera Group’s Germany-based subsidiary Kyocera Fineceramics GmbH.
Kyocera Corporation (NYSE:KYO) (TOKYO:6971), the parent and global headquarters of the Kyocera Group, was founded in 1959 as a producer of fine ceramics. By combining these engineered materials with metals and integrating them with other technologies, Kyocera has become a leading supplier of electronic components, printers, copiers, solar power generating systems, mobile phones, semiconductor packages, cutting tools and industrial ceramics. During the year ended March 31, 2014, the company’s net sales totalled 1.45 trillion yen (approx. USD14.1 billion). Kyocera appears on the latest listing of the “Top 100 Global Innovators” by Thomson Reuters, and is ranked #531 on Forbes magazine’s current “Global 2000” listing of the world’s largest publicly traded companies.
For more information please contact:
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KAROLIS RŪKAS+37052487677 |
| Seller | Buyer |
| Kazickas family and management |  |
Atea Baltic, subsidiary of Norwegian IT group Atea ASA, acquired Baltnetos Komunikacijos, leading Lithuanian cloud and IT outsourcing provider. Baltnetos Komunikacijos, founded in 1996 and headquartered in Vilnius, offers data center, cloud computing, internet, VoIP and IT maintenance. The company has about 120 employees, and recorded €7.2 mln sales and €1.9 mln EBITDA in 2014.
Atea ASA is one of the leading suppliers of IT services in Scandinavia and Baltics. In the Baltics the company has more than 500 employees and sales in 2014 reached €94.7 mln. During past few years Atea made 5 other acquisitions in the Baltics within the IT sector.
The transaction was completed on 9 April 2015. The agreed enterprise value is €10.4 mln. Keystone acted as an advisor to Atea Baltic.
For more information please see the press release or contact:
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KAROLIS RŪKAS+37052487677 |
In April 2015 Hansapost OÜ signed an agreement to acquire a 70.5% majority stake in SIA “Xnet”.
| Seller | Buyer |
| Latvian entrepreneurs |  |
Xnet is one of the leading e-commerce businesses in Latvia operating Xnet.lv, a popular online department store, and aboluveikals.lv, the first official online retailer of Apple products in Latvia. Company’s turnover reached EUR 4 mn last year. Hansapost is the largest e-commerce company in Estonia with turnover exceeding EUR 10 mn.
For additional information please contact:
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TÕNIS KONS+3725015640 |
Unitcom Eesti, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) owned by a group of Estonian private investors, acquired Unity Internet, a wireless broadband access provider, and Unity Systems, an enterprise IT infrastructure services provider.
| Seller | Buyer |
| Majority owner Herty Tammo (through T-Ventures AS, HT management OÜ) | Unitcom Eesti OÜ |
Keystone advised the owners of Unitcom Eesti OÜ in the process of acquisition of Estonian firms Unity Systems and Unity Internet.
Unity Internet is a wireless broadband access services provider with ca 40% country coverage, incl. capital Tallinn and the surrounding Harju county. Established in 2004, the company has focused primarily on private and business customers outside the network coverage of large telecoms. Unity Systems has been offering IT infrastructure maintenance and development services as well as IT hardware and software sales to business clients in Northern Estonia since 1998. Among other engagements, Unity Systems provides technical maintenance also to the electronic ticket system of Tallinn public transport.
Net revenue of the acquired companies in 2013 amounted to EUR 1.37m and EBITDA EUR 0.23m. The transaction price is kept undisclosed. The transaction was advised by investment bank Keystone Advisers, law firm Everheds Ots & Co, and financial advisory Grant Thornton Rimess. Transaction financing was provided by Swedbank Estonia.
For more information, please read the press release or contact us:
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TÕNIS KONS+3725015640 |
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14.01.2015, Tallinn |
PRESS RELEASEUnitcom Eesti, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) owned by a group of Estonian private investors, acquired Unity Internet, a wireless broadband access provider, and Unity Systems, an enterprise IT infrastructure services provider. With the transaction that reached closing on January 13, a group of Estonian private investors with telecom, IT and cable television background acquired 100 percent shareholdings in Unity Internet and Unity Systems. Both companies were controlled by Herty Tammo, a serial entrepreneur with interests in various startups and industrial businesses. Management as minority shareholders rolled their equity over to the acquiring company. Unity Internet is a wireless broadband access services provider with ca 40% country coverage, incl. capital Tallinn and the surrounding Harju county. Established in 2004, the company has focused primarily on private and business customers outside the network coverage of large telecoms. Unity Systems has been offering IT infrastructure maintenance and development services as well as IT hardware and software sales to business clients in Northern Estonia since 1998. Among other engagements, Unity Systems provides technical maintenance also to the electronic ticket system of Tallinn public transport. Net revenue of the acquired companies in 2013 amounted to EUR 1.37m and EBITDA EUR 0.23m. The transaction price is kept undisclosed. The transaction was advised by investment bank Keystone Advisers, law firm Everheds Ots & Co, and financial advisory Grant Thornton Rimess. Transaction financing was provided by Swedbank Estonia. Additional information: Peep Põldsamm, Unitcom Eesti / Keystone Advisers
Herty Tammo, T-Ventures AS / OÜ HT Management |
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Following a significant slowdown during the crisis years, M&A activity has gradually increased since the start of 2013. Sale of distressed assets is being replaced by deals that were put on hold during the crisis, as profitability returns to normal levels. Lengthy one to one negotiations have been replaced by sales processes with multiple bidders. Foreign bidders have resumed to take interest in Baltic companies; however most buyers are still local companies.
Overall, the first three quarters of 2014 have seen 201 transactions, more than 20% increase compared to 163 deals made during the same period in 2013. The deal flow was highest in the first quarter with 83 deals, slowing down to 74 and 58 deals in Q2 and Q3, respectively.
Based on deal value, Baltic deals, Jan-Sep 2014, Source: Keystone Watch
Yet, looking at the deal value structure, a more nuanced picture emerges. The vast majority of the deals were low value transactions with deal value not exceeding 5 million EUR. However, while more than half of the deals in the range between 5 and 15 million EUR in value took place in Q1, the situation is exact opposite for the deals above 15 million in value. There were 3 such deals in Q1, and 10 and 11 deals in Q2 and Q3, respectively.
Based on the country of the deal target, Jan-Sep 2014, Source: Keystone Watch
Estonia is the clear leader among the Baltic countries in terms of deal flow – 84 deals or nearly half of all the deals in the Baltics targeted an Estonian-based company. Nevertheless, the more sizable deals, i.e. those worth 5 million EUR and above, are split roughly equally among the Baltic states with no clear leader. Yet, with respect to the big deals (worth above 50 million EUR), Latvia took the lion’s share with 4 deals, while there were 2 such deals in Lithuania and only 1 in Estonia.
To highlight the major deals, sale of RSA Insurance Group’s Baltic operations to Polish giant PZU for 364 million EUR was the largest deal in the Baltics so far this year. Gazprom’s exit from Lithuanian gas companies and the sale of the insolvent Latvian steelmaker Liepajas Metalurgs to Ukrainian KVV Group complete the top 3 deals in the period.
Looking at the statistics of participating parties, the number of deals is split roughly equally between intra-Baltic transactions and those that involved a country from outside the Baltics.
Based on type of the deal, Baltic countries, Jan-Sep 2014, Source: Keystone Watch
The most deals were taking place in TMT, Industrials and Commercial Real Estate sectors, which together made up 60% of total deal flow in the Baltics. TMT sector is particularly interesting as there is a substantial amount of deals involving IT start-ups, especially in Estonia. The most noteworthy deals were the sale of Estonian-established community engineering platform GrabCAD to global 3D printing leader Stratasys and Latvia’s social networking platform Ask.fm’s sale to Ask.com.
Based on the industry of the target, Baltic countries, Jan-Sep 2014, Source: Keystone Watch
Looking into the future, according to the European Commission forecasts, Baltic economies are going to be among the fastest growing EU members in 2015. With Latvia and Lithuania expected to grow at around 3% and Estonia at 2%.
The positive macroeconomic outlook is expected to continue supporting the already strong business confidence, good growth opportunities and credit availability. Besides increasing the attractiveness of local companies as acquisition targets, relatively good growth prospects also put them in a strong position to make acquisitions themselves. This process is enhanced by the fact that banks are willing to issue secured loan credit at relatively cheap rates. The local banking sector is dominated by the subsidiaries of Nordic banks, which are strong at home and hold favorable view of the Baltic market.
Keystone Baltic M&A Watch indicates increasing private equity activity in the region. Three quarters of 2014 have seen a total of 80 deals with financial investor involvement, 40% of all transactions counted by Keystone. One third of deal flow comes from venture capital segment as seed and growth financing opportunities for fast growing Baltic technology companies have become steadily available. Locally managed VC vehicles are accompanied by global growth investors such as Accel Partners, Intel Capital and Bain Capital Ventures that have all invested in the Baltic based tech ventures.
Buy-out and growth financing segments are relatively immature compared to venture financing opportunities; still, a trend towards increasing activity could be noticed. European Investment Fund backed fund-of-funds vehicle is expected to bring approximately 300 million EUR of new capital to the market and at least five local General Partner teams have taken up the management of that capital. Thus far, however, only BaltCap has managed to reach closing with their new mid-market fund. BaltCap is clearly the most active PE investor in the region by Keystone Baltic 2014 M&A Watch, followed by Eften Capital and East Capital in commercial property sectors.
Baltic countries are now rarely defined as emerging markets and this reflects to private equity market as well. Some corporates and emerging market focused high-growth funds that invested in the Baltic-based companies ten years ago are now selling their portfolio holdings (for example Askembla, Amber Trust) and these assets are often picked up by local entrepreneurs and private investment companies such as UP Invest and My Invest.
Keystone expects the abovementioned trends to continue in 2015 and onwards. Valuations in the Baltic region are significantly lower compared to neighbouring Scandinavian or Western European markets and an increasing number of growth oriented Baltic enterprises are looking to raise equity or mezzanine financing to support their expansion outside the region. Baltic markets are now clearly on the radar for pan-European private equity community.
For more information please contact Mr Tõnis Kons:
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TÕNIS
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Rolvika UAB, a Lithuanian company active in design and installation of refrigeration equipment divested to the Finnish Monilaite-Thomeko.
| Seller | Buyer |
| Venture Capital Fund Gild Arbitrage (insolvent) |  |
Keystone Advisers advised the shareholders of Lithuanian Rolvika group in the process of divesting the business to a Finnish company Monilaite-Thomeko. The transaction was completed on December 1st, 2014. Rolvika group will be integrated alongside already existing Monilaite-Thomeko operations in Baltics.
Rolvika group consists of Rolvika UAB, company active in design and installation of refrigeration equipment for commercial, industrial and public catering companies in Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus and Robiga UAB, manufacturer of stainless steel furniture. The consolidated revenue of the group was €12 million in 2013 with 200 people employed.
Monilaite-Thomeko is a leading importer and wholesale company active in equipment, material, appliances and accessories for the food retail, fast food and restaurant areas. The family owned company is present in Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and China. Total Monilaite-Thomeko turnover after this transaction will reach €45 million, 60% of which is generated in Baltics. The group will employ more than 400 employees. For more information please read transaction announcement by Monilaite-Thomeko.
The price of the transaction is not disclosed. Team of Keystone Advisers acted as exclusive financial adviser to the sellers. For more information please contact Mr Karolis Rūkas:
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KAROLIS RŪKAS+37052487677 |
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01.12.2014
Monilaite-Thomeko Group has as of today acquired 100 % of Rolvika UAB´s shares. Rolvika is one of the leading refrigeration design and construction company in the Baltic countries. Rolvika´s subsidiary, Robiga UAB, is well known stainless-steel furniture manufacturer in the region.
The acquired companies are active in Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus. The acquisition will increase our market share as regards technical equipment, refrigeration and service for the retail and food industry sectors.
– We will complement each other perfectly and strengthen both equipment sales and service.
Rolvika and Robiga employ 200 people. Sales for 2014 is estimated to be 13 million EUR. Rolvika has subsidiaries in Latvia and Belarus. Rolvika´s refrigeration know how and Robiga’s stainless-steel furniture production is an opportunity and we will be able to provide more flexible and high quality solutions to all our customers. Monilaite-Thomeko Group will employ 400 persons and the sales will reach 45 million EUR.
– The customer of Rolvika´s as well as ours are the leading retail stores and food industry companies in the region.
The acquired companies will for the time being continue as independent subsidiary companies. The acquisition will not have any immediate effect on the number of employees.
Fred Ramberg will take position as chairman of the board of Rolvika and other members will consist of Jerker Molander and Rolvika`s current CEO Nedas Karklius.
For more information:
Fred Ramberg, CEO, Monilaite-Thomeko Group Oy
Tel. +358 500 460 944, fred.ramberg@mtoy.fi
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Monilaite-Thomeko was founded in 1923. The company is specialized in supplying technical solutions, material and aftersales services to the daily consumer goods sector. It operates in Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus and Russia. Main customers are food retail chains, fast food restaurant chains and food industry.
www.mtoy.fi
www.rolvika.lt
Press release 06.03.2013
“Pouttu is a well-functioning Finnish meat processing company that has a strong brand, dedicated and professional management and modern production,” chairman of the supervisory board of Maag Grupp Roland Sepp said.
“Next to an increase in production and sales volumes, Pouttu’s extensive meat processing experience and skills which we’ll be able to apply in Estonia from now on are of equal importance to us,” he added.
Founded in 1938, Pouttu is the oldest trademark in the Finnish meat industry. The company has a long history of customer relations with Finnish retail chains like Kesko, S-Group and Lidl. It also has a country-wide sales and distribution network and enjoys close cooperation with large HoReCa customers.
The turnover of the Pouttu meat factory based in Kannus 500 kilometers to the north of Helsinki was 61.4 million euros in 2012. The company employs 280 people.
Maag Lihatoostus is a holding of the food industry company Maag Grupp based on Estonian capital. The acquisition of Pouttu will lift the group’s sales to 174 million euros and increase its staff to 786.
Other companies in the Maag Grupp are Maag Piimatoostus, Maag Konservitööstus, Nigula Piim, Maag Food, and Gelid Food, as well as Avalon Foods in Poland.
The transaction was financed by Swedbank, with Keystone Advisers, Raidla Lejins & Norcous, Roschier and Grant Thornton acting as consultants.
